Maintenance Engineer - Training

The following is an example of advertisement made to invite students to study the course in aircraft maintenance.



The company: Malaysian Aviation Training Academy, located in Kuantan, Malaysia,

Course Offered: The company currently offers only two courses:
A.- Aircraft Engineer - In compliance to Part 66 under the EASA guideline.
Requirements - SPM (like O level) with credit in English, Mathematics and one of the science or technical subjects

B. - Aircraft Technician
- Credit in English and in mathematics and either science of technical subject.


Age: Above 17 years old.

Safety System for School

The Civil Aviation Authority overseeing the ATO (approved training organisation) wants the ATO to have a set of system to manage the safety. The system will be documented in SMS, the safety maintenance manual.

In the last visit on 14 Nov, the DCA had reiterated the need have the Safety Management System in place for the next visit.

Our jobs will be made easier, as we had a copy of the old safety manual. Although the manual was designed for other purpose, the key points of safety will remain about similar.

With the requirements from DCA and the copy of living manual, the task for writing the SMS will be easier. In my mind, it may take 10 working days at the most.

As such, I would like to discuss and review the first cut of the draft of MATA SMS Manual on the first week of December.

I had also review the AN with regard to Safety and append some of the key point. There is yet to be AN for Training.

...........................................

...extracted from AN 101 ...

Applicability And Acceptance
3.1 Effective 1 January 2009, an AMO shall have in place a SMS that is acceptable to the DCA, that, as a minimum:

a) identifies safety hazards;
b) ensures that remedial action necessary to maintain an acceptable level of safety is implemented;
c) provides for continuous monitoring and regular assessment of the safety level achieved; and
d) aims to make continuous improvement to the overall level of safety.

3.2 In order to be acceptable to DCA, an AMO SMS shall meet the requirements set forth in this Notice

Organisational structure and responsibilities
6.2.1 The Accountable Manager shall be responsible and accountable on behalf of the AMO for meeting the
requirements of this regulation.
6.2.2 The Accountable Manager shall have the ultimate responsibility for the implementation and maintenance of
the SMS.
6.2.3 The Accountable Manager shall have:
a) full control of the human resources required for the activities authorised to be conducted under the
approval certificate;
b) full control of the financial resources required for the activities authorised to be conducted under the
approval certificate;
c) final authority over activities authorised to be conducted under the approval certificate;
d) direct responsibility for the conduct of the organisation„s affairs; and
e) final responsibility for all safety issues.

6.3.3 The SMS implementation plan shall include the following:
a) safety policy and objectives;
b) safety roles and responsibilities;
c) system description;
d) gap analysis;
e) SMS components;
f) safety performance measurement;
g) safety reporting policy;
h) safety communication;
i) means of employee involvement; and
j) management review of safety performance.
6.3.4 The SMS implementation plan shall be endorsed by senior management of the organisation.

With system system for school implemented, it would be easier to make the student understand the importance of safety and how it is implemented in an organisation.

study loan

One of the critical issues is to get will sponsors to offer scholarship or loan. This is because the cost of the programs are normally beyond reach of the ordinary people. The cost to get the EASA B1 or B2 license can run to about RM100 thousand. Not many parents have that kind of cash readily available.

Early this year, we had a humbling experience in our effort to recruit more students. We advertised for B1 course and we were too happy to receive 500 applicants. As the preparation time was short, we made the preparation for 2 classes. A class for B1 can take the maximum of 28 students and 15 for practical. To our frustration, the majority of the interested candidates were unable to pursue the course due to no funding.

This forced us to look for alternative source of fundings. The bank may not be the best choice as the borrowers have to show the ability to pay based on the existing financial standings. That means, the potential earnings of the students cannot be included in the potential source of funds.

Some of the possible organisations that can support the students are the foundations and NGOs. Some of the states and cooperative banks are showing more interest compared to the high street banks.

The Malaysian High Education Fund, a supposed to be revolving fund set up by the government to offer loans is hit by problems of loan defaulters. It is estimated that about 130,000 refused to pay, and the loan amount is in the region of RM1.2b

Competency Development for Trainers

One of the issues for an aviation school is to develop the competencies for the trainers. Trainers has to be viewed as the most important asset needed to drive towards the objectives.

Building School Strategy

xx
If the aviation school is part of a bigger organisation, like a university, or an airline, it is important to build the school strategies based on the strategies of the parent's organisation.

The easiest way to show the alignment is by putting the strategies in a triangular presentation above. You can have more than one strategies. The thinking should be... the parent's company is pursuing the strategy of ..e.g...customers satisfaction through premier services,... this will require the staff to be... e.g service oriented....

The above diagram gives the linear flow of the thought. It always start on the left with the "WISH" or commonly termed the "VISION", the organisation will be .... e.g the number 1 school in the country. The objectives, normally about 4 or 5, are the path towards attaining the vision. Such as:
a.To have the biggest student population.
b. At least the second best in term of student performance.
c. The students to be the preferred employees by the industry.
d. Have competent and satisfied staff.

e. Financial Independant

The above was the vision of a department within an airline. If you are operating a private organisation for business, the vision may be different taking into consideration of the need to make profit.

Profitability is normally accidental, as when the processes and other objectives fall snugly in place, the money will flow in.

Upon establishing the vision, this visioning model, requires the crafting of the mission followed by the objectives. The mission is something you want to do me achieve the vision. It is about what the organisation does. It you are a school, the natural activity is education or training.

The objectives are the target you want to achieve in implementing the mission. The objectives will help the organisation to focus. At least everyone knows that these are the target you want to achieve.

If you are operating an independent training organisation may be you like to consider the mentioned objectives...
a.To have the biggest student population.
b. At least the second best in term of student performance.
c. The students to be the preferred employees by the industry.
d. Have competent and satisfied staff.
e. Financial Independant
What is critical is the weightage,out of the above five which is the most important that you want to target first.
Please take note that the above objectives may not be mutually supporting. Striving for financial independent may postpone the other target such as preferred employees.


Competition is always of concern in the free capitalist economy. Even in country practicing guided or semi-central controlled economy like Malaysia, the competition has to be added to the calculation.
Just as a note.. the guided economy is normally characterized by the GDP that is highly driven by public sectors or government linked Companies.

The subsequent learning strategies is to replaced by delivery strategies. It is the middle level strategy to an organisation.

xx

Getting International Students

We were trying to get international students. We can charge them higher and get a bigger margin.

There are a number of issues involved.

a. Getting the approval

b. Selecting good candidates

Getting Approval

This can be a tricky business. The authority wants a good track record and an established system to manage the overseas students. A good track records can be difficult to get especially if you are new to the business.

For the purpose of visas and immigration authorities, there are only three bodies that can recommend the applications for students visa, they are.. the education ministry, the manpower and the tourist ministry. Unfortunately, our aviation school is not related to any of the ministry, we are approved by DCAM, department of civil aviation Malaysia.

To kick start the project, we decided to get guidelines from the ministry of education, although we knows that we are not registered with the ministry. Sure enough, the feedback that we received, the ministry can only recommend the intake for school institutions approved under the Ministry.

Our best bet was through the ministry of human resource. There is a department within the ministry that provide certification for vocational education, known locally as JPK. We will have to apply to become an approved international center for training.

Meanwhile, the project with the ministry to set up the education for year 10 was successful. So there will be tons of jobs to be done.

Applying for EASA part 147 approval

EASA part 147 is about approved maintenance training organisation. It contains the requirements to be made to set up an approved school to train aircraft maintenance personnel. The requirements include the facilities, personnel and the training process. The organisation has to write a policy and procedure manual known as "maintenance training organisation exposition" (MTOE) giving detail process of training.

So my aviation school had submitted the MTOE to the Civil Aviation Authority. We waited for about two weeks and since we did not receive any response, we called the person in charge. His response was, " a team is looking at our application.

When the response was received, we felt a bit down as there was too many comments that need to be corrected. The new team at the Civil Aviation office was doing a very thorough job. Some of their comments are given below:

a. The percentage of practical training is not in compliance to the part 147 requirement.

We looked at the requirement about the training hours for Cat A. The requirements says, the minimum training hours is 800, and 70% is practical and 30% theory.

We did the analysis, the total is 800 hours, and 70% training means 560 hours. As we want to make sure that the students understand, we had increase the total training hours to 1000, so this was how we calculate:

a. Minimum hours is 800, so the minimum practical is 560hours and theory is 240 hours.

b. We conducted 1000 hours, but we use the 560 for practical hours and 440 for theory.

This was not acceptable as the guide says that the practical is 70%, and the authority interpreted is to the letter that 700 hours practical and 300 hours theory.

Our Application for EASA part 147 approval is still pending. More requirements have to be complied. Our local airworthiness authority wanted us to include the setting of independent exam center mainly for our own students and external participants.

DESIGNING THE COMPETENCY FRAMEWORK FOR THE VOCATIONAL SCHOOL

I am involved to help my school to start a collaborative effort with the Education Ministry to offer vocational program in aircraft maintenance.

I was looking for the curriculum literature applicable to the vocational school project. Unfortunately, no ready- made solution was found in the internet.

The suggestion below is based on my working experience in helping to build the competency framework for an airline and the related education and training that I had gone through. It lacks a thorough research, both primary and secondary, and no attempt was made to validate the proposal.

1. THE END IN MIND

This is the intended kind of people that we want to mould or ‘create’. The school will shape the students through various interventions, policy and procedure, training and classes to make him or her to be the intended ideal workers. I am using the term HE or HIM with the understanding that it is for MALE and FEMALE.

a. He will take safety as the ultimate objective.

b. He will make compliant to work process a second nature.

c. He will build a linear thinking, as opposed to marketeers with diverse and diverge lines of thought.

d. He will have the basic skill and basic aviation skill and the intended clusters of skills.

2. THE CONCEPTUAL FRAME

NOT INCLUDED (COPY RIGHT)

3. CONTENTS

a. Basic Engineering – year 1

i. Safety practices – dress, hair, protective equipments, the housekeeping. etc

ii. Basic tools and application

iii. Basic measuring techniques

iv. Filing, sawing, drilling, hammering

v. Welding, soldering, brazing

vi. Basic electrical skill – commercial method to join wires, electrical measuring equipment.

vii. Basic computer technical skills – disassemble and assembly of computer

b. Aviation Skill - year 2.

i. Specific tools for aviation

ii. Aviation simple test equipment.

iii. Safety in Aviation

iv. Measuring precision and accuracy

v. Disassemble and assembly of car engine

c. YEAR 3

i. Aviation standard of soldering, and electrical connection

ii. Fibre optic connection and terminations

iii. Sheet metal work

iv. Engine practical

v. Hydraulic components, pumps and actuators

vi. Electrical generator , motor assembly

vii. Various electric motor, 3 phase, split phase, series, shunt etc.

viii. Digital technique

4. IMPLEMENTATION METHOD

a. The intended safety, procedure compliance and the thinking process need to be drilled in from the first day.

b. Leading by example is required, the instructors and leaders have to walk the talks.

c. Looking at the conceptual frame, we can implement the basic engineering skills first.

To be developed

5. ASSESSMENT PRINCIPLES --TBA

We may include machinery work on lathe and milling machines, but I think it is unlikely that the students need to use it. The A and B license will rely on the support from the machine shops.

There is a chance that the A licensed will find job at the machine shops

Working Visit to Kolej Yayasan Melaka

Last week a team from my school went for a working visit to Kolej Yayasan Melaka or KYM in short. There were 5 of us, and the trip from Kuala Lumpur was about 2 hours.

KYM is situated in the historic state of Malacca, offering diplomas and partnership degrees in multiple disciplines. Early this year the college embarked on a new vocational offering, the training in aircraft maintenance discipline, enabling the students to qualify for EASA aircraft maintenance license under part 66 rules. However, the college was and is not ready to meet the requirements of EASA.

EASA stands for the European Aviation Safety Agency, a ruling body the control the civil aviation in Europe. It set the standards and certify organisations according to the set of rules. The rule of part 147 control and certify organisation to become a maintenance training organisation. An approved 147 company is allowed to trained and examine students to the standard dictated by the EASA or the local authority. In Malaysia, the authority is DCAM.

My School is approved by DCAM under BCAR section L. We are moving to become 147 approved. As we are in better position compared to KYM, we are in position to help them

TNA Management Presentation

1. Training Needs Analysis is the first part of the Course Design Process of the ADDIE model. ADDIE stands for analysis, design, develop, implement and evaluate. If I am the training arm of a company, I may receive a request from an organisation to conduct a certain course. The requests for course can be due to a number of reasons, such as:

a. performance enhancement.

b. new product launching

c. solution to a problem.

2. You may need to apply for budgets or management support to enable you to carry a pilot project for the TNA. It can be in the form of the TNA for a small department.

This a sample of real presentation made to an orgaisation to get the budget for the TNA project.

3. The first step is to educate the Bosses. Many of people may have a negative view on this. They may say.. " it is not my duty to educate bosses. This is not a smart way of doing thing. If bosses do not understand TNA, they will not support you. You may face problem to get the funds and you cannot move forward.

3. Once the bosses know about TNA, then convince them about the value of TNA. There two ways you can do, first you get the training efforts you had done in the last 5 years, get the cost and highlight the negative effect because the TNA was not done.

Secondly, do a scenario and highlight the benefits if you were to do TNA. Translate the data to dollars and cents.

4. There are numerous issues an airline can have. It can range from low staff morale, low productivity, low yield. The TNA attempts to identify if the problems can be solved by training. As such, the execution of TNA will require skills beyond the the training expertise.

It is too often that the production units will link the short coming to training. For example.. the reject rate of a production units had exceeded the maximum permitted. The production manager will request training to be done. The cause many not be due to the lack of skills, as it can be the raw material purchased or the machinery.

5. The above diagram shows the steps to be taken.

a. On receipt of the problem, example.. the part reject rate is too high, the first step is to check the data and the trend. Is the problem is real and had been captured through a proper mechanism.

b. If the gap is significant, then we will face the next difficult task of identifying the cause. This is the critical stage, as if we identify the wrong cause, then we are offering the wrong solution.

Tracking Training Performance

In Training organisation, the most important resource is the Human Resources. This is because, the knowledge and skills to be given to the students resides within the person, and it take a person to deliver and assess the training.

The knowledges and skills of the teaching resources are normally managed at two levels, the organisational levels and the individual levels. For bigger organisations, it may be measured at more levels to include regional and departmental.

a. At organisational level.
This is the more important measure. If an organisation claims to have capability to deliver a certain program, then show she has to show her resources or capability. An auditor can say..."show me your instructors list". Then we have to have the list of trainers, validators and assessor with the qualifications and experiences. This need to be done.. a one page list of our resources.

b. Individual level
An individual has to have at least 2 dimensions of measure..
- the productivity
- the capability
Of course there are other dimensions, not to be measured at this juncture.
We will be implementing a report card system, where we will track the productivity of a staff. To make it simple, we can start with course days per month. Off course we too acknowledge that there are more to productivity.
The capacity will be the simplified version of the module teaching capability, at 3 level, ready to teach, need time to prepare and thirdly, the additional module next year. These can be linked to performance measure.

Example:
Mr Alpha... can have
1. Ready to teach -- module 3, 4
2. needs more preparation -- module 5
3. New modules next year -- modules 9,10,
This will help us to plan for manpower development.

Regards

JOHARI

Importance of Getting EASA147

There is only five approved maintenance training school for aviation in Malaysia. As we were using the BCAR section L, the approval was initially granted for the system. Now that the country had migrated to EASA system, it is imperative that the five ATO would follow suit and get the EASA approval.

There are different in concept between the EASA system and the BCAR. The EASA tend to push the certification to the organisation. That mean the ATO has to do more under EASA than compared to the operation under section L.

The BCAR Section L originates from the ICAO 1944, the personal licensing system, where the Licensed Engineer had to shoulder heavier responsibility on the aircraft airworthiness. That was ok, as the aircrafts were simpler.

The role of the training organisation can basically be divided into 4:

- impart the knowledge components of the training
- test the knowledge level of the trainees.
- impart the skill elements
- test the skill.

As such, the school has to have the system, the personnel, the contents and test schemes for both the knowledge and the practicals skills.


This was the message to the staff of the training organisation...

The purpose of this email to re-inforce the importance and urgency of obtaining the 147 ATO. Without the DCA approval, we will not be in position to pursue other projects with other organisations.

Although the first initiative is to GET DCA 147, the very nature of 147 requirements require us to do the other initiatives. They have to be done in parallel.
We will need and we expect the support of all staff in our endeavours.,
Copy of the emails (minus some details) will be posted in the blog for easy reference.

Getting EASA 147

This is the message from the manager of the training school to all his staff to focus on getting the EASA 147 approval.

In anticipation of the forth coming Department of Civil Aviation audit, I would like the month of November to be the month of quality. This does not mean that we ignore the other activities, but we will put extra emphasis to prepare for the audit for the 147 compliance.

The guiding principles:

These are the way we will drive the quality.

a. The drive toward quality will be a join effort of all the departments and sections. Only through the collaborative means, we will achieve our objectives.

b. Quality is the responsibility of everyone, it is not limited to the quality department or the management, as such all levels will be involved.

Action Plans

These are the activities that we will do.

a. A weekly meeting between training and QA to plan, review and report on quality issues. Suggest every Monday.

b. Identify the major process as described in the Training Organisation Exposition and the Airworthiness Notices 1101 and 1201.

c. Agree on the process owner. And plan for the actions.

d. Review the process and check compliance.

I will be attending the meeting at least once a month.

TRACKING

I would like to monitor these by..

a. By minutes of meeting

b. By weekly report.

CONCERNED PROCESSES.

The immediate concern process is the program scheduling. It MUST NOT be viewed as an activities to schedule the courses, but it is to be viewed as the actions taken to ensure that the students are ready to sit for the exams. The differences between the two is vast.

There are more to be taken to get the EASA147 approval. Let us concentrate our effort to achieve the objective.

Training Needs Assessment - Project Charter

Project Charter

Training Needs Assessment

Pilot Project

(TNAPP)

Edition No. 01/20xx

10 November 20xx

Pilot Project Statement:

To complete Training Needs Assessment (TNA) for Sales, Distribution & Marketing (SDM) by 31^st March 20xx within the 20xx budget

Objectives:

1. Align training to AIRLINES corporate strategies.
2. Identify the Gap (does Gap exist & is training the solution?)
3. Produce Structured Training Plan
4. Support Strategic Manpower Planning
5. Setting the framework for company wide Training Needs Assessment

Project Constraints:

1. Limited manpower resources – team members are not full time

2. Competencies – team members having limited competencies

3. Budget limitation

Project Issues/Concerns:

1. Airlines current performance
2. Management support & commitment

Project Team

§ Project Sponsor - xx

§ Project Owner - xx

Core Working Team

§ Project Manager - xx

§ Project Leader - xxi

§ Members

o Dd

o Ff

o Gg

o Hh

o Jj

Action Plan

The project team has proposed the following action plan with its associated timeline:

No.	Description	Who	Target Date
1.	Obtain approval from	Team	07 Dec
2.	Finalise team formation	Project Leader	14 Dec
3.	Obtain approval from GMGHR	Team	16 Dec
4.	Finalise project plan details	Team	21 Dec
5.	Finalise Contract / Roles / Expectations with IATA	Project Leader & Project Owner	By end Dec
6.	Conduct TNA	Team	Jan- Feb
7.	Present to Management	Team	Mar
8.	Obtain Management Approval	Team	Mar
9.	Develop Structured Training Plan	Team	Mar
10.	Next phase – Conduct TNA for the next division	Team

Endorsement:

…………………… ……………………. …………………….

Project Manager Project Owner Project Sponsor